Top Headlines: PM Modi cautions against Covid, GAIL's LNG hunt, and more

Business Standard brings you the top headlines at this hour

'Mask up': PM Modi cautions against complacency at crucial Covid meet

Prime Minister (PM) Narendra Modi at a high-level meeting on Thursday cautioned against complacency and advised masking up and taking precautionary doses amid rising Covid cases in China and other countries. Modi told officials to strengthen surveillance measures, especially at international airports. He also stressed the need to ensure that the entire Covid infrastructure at all levels is maintained at a high level of preparedness in terms of equipment, processes, and human resources. Read More

House panel seeks to rein in Big Tech firms with digital competition law

The Parliamentary Standing Committee on Finance has presented a set of recommendations to rein in Big Tech companies through a digital competition law for regulating anti-competitive practices on their platforms. The report underlined the need for ex-ante regulations — which are cautionary and based on anticipated changes or activity — and said the government must frame a definition for Systemically Important Digital Intermediaries (SIDIs) that need tighter regulations. Read More

NIIF, India's first state-backed fund, faces questions from government

India’s lofty expectations for the National Investment & Infrastructure Fund are now in question. A chilly relationship has developed between NIIF’s team and the government over investment choices, according to interviews with officials and fund managers. Critics inside and outside the government complain that NIIF — which handles about $4.3 billion in assets — lacks vision, decisiveness and the ability to win over investors. Read More
 

Russia's Gazprom turns off tap, GAIL's hunt for LNG may continue for a year

State-run largest gas utility GAIL (India) fears little to no supply of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from Russia’s Gazprom for at least 12 months, and is preparing to meet the shortfall accordingly. The supply constraints, which have cut off almost 20 per cent of all gas supplies, will continue to persist for some time, GAIL executives recently said in a meeting with ICICI Securities. Later, GAIL executives told Business Standard the company continues to face a shortfall of 8.5-9 million standard cubic meters per day (mscmd). Read More
 

Gulf migrants tapped to smuggle gold, narcotics spike surprise officials

A “lot of” out-of-job Indian migrants to Gulf countries have been used by smugglers to ship gold into India, says a report titled “Smuggling in India” released by the Directorate of Revenue Intelligence (DRI) recently.

But while gold smuggling gets a lot of attention, officials said they were more concerned with the clear rise in smuggling of narcotics, as the data shows. Read More